As speculation about Andy Burnham’s pick for chancellor intensifies, Ed Miliband’s name consistently rises to the top of the betting odds. A former special adviser to Gordon Brown after 1997 and then chair of the council of economic advisers at the Treasury, he is eminently qualified.
But there’s a problem. He’s been weighed and measured in the court of public opinion over the past 15 years and voters have long since made up their mind about Edward Samuel Miliband.
And they just don’t like him.
He shafted his brother for the Labour leadership. He couldn’t eat a bacon sandwich. He cosied up to Russell Brand, trying to look cool during the 2015 general election. Before standing next to a piece of granite with his top ten policies carved on it. He’s weird.
It’s not fair, but there it is.
Miliband has two interconnected problems. The first is that he has enormous public recognition. According to YouGov’s tracking poll, 94% of the public knows who he is.
Normally you would assume that’s an advantage for a politician. Alas, his second problem is that 51% of voters can’t stand him. (I refer you to my opening paragraph. Alea iacta est. The die is cast).
So, Andy Burnham would be wise not to provoke the public by making Miliband his chancellor of the exchequer. The role is about politics, not economics. Selling the government’s case on the economy. The cost of living – and Labour’s lamentable ability so far to do much about it – is going to define the outcome of the next general election. Whoever Burnham picks needs to speak the public’s language.
Miliband’s undoubted academic intelligence is not matched by similar emotional intelligence. His record as a bossy energy secretary – who seems immune from the public’s frustration over enduring the highest energy bills in the West – is surely a disqualification from being appointed chancellor, when this government is going to stand or fall over the issue of living standards.
